Sunday, March 18, 2018

One night about a month and a half ago I was doing some work for my theater company, posting information about our upcoming production to various listings websites. While I was working I came across a listing for Bubble Guppies Live in our city and I got SO excited. I'm definitely that mom. The mom that gets really excited about kid activities. BabyCakes was watching Bubble Guppies occasionally at this time. I bought us three tickets and started to incorporate more Bubble Guppies into her TV time so she'd be ready for the show!

If you're not familiar with the Bubble Guppies it's a really cute cartoon about a group of fish-tailed preschoolers. It's fun, interactive, and educational. They teach science, math, literacy, and problem solving through the stories. Each episode also has a series of songs and movements which BabyCakes loves to do along with the show.

After a month and a half of build-up the day was finally here, we were headed to Bubble Guppies Live! We had a really great time.

The production quality of the show was really great. The sets and costumes did a great job of creating the underwater world on stage. The actors and puppeteers also did a great job of creating the characters from the cartoon. Even though the costumes didn't have moving mouths the actors did an excellent job with their bodies and gestures to ensure the audience knew who was talking when. The story-line was very cute and they incorporated lessons, songs, and dances from the animated show.

If you have a little Bubble Guppies fan and you're considering seeing the tour in your city I highly recommend it. It was a great choice for BabyCakes first live show. Kids were dancing and singing in the aisles. The show runs about an hour and 15 minutes with the intermission, which was a great length for our toddler/pre-schooler.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Burnout is real. While I talk about self-care mostly from the perspective of parents ANYONE can experience burnout. We live in a culture that glorifies overworking ourselves. We glorify "the grind" but there's nothing glamorous about working yourself to death. I've gotten much better at realizing that I'm close to burnout before I actually get there.

Signs you're close to burnout:

physical and/or emotional exhaustion

frustration

short temperedness

feeling resentment for helping others

being unable to focus

experiencing anxiety at the onset of any new responsibilities

Burnout can sneak up on the best of us. We juggle so many things and can find ourselves overwhelmed without noticing it coming on. If you realize you're close to burnout here are some good things to do.

How to deal with burnout:

Offload Responsibilities (ask for help)

Offload responsibilities in the long term or the short term. For the short term - ask your spouse for extra assistance with the children, ask your boss to adjust deadlines if possible, ask your co-workers for assistance with your tasks. In the long term - consider stepping down from a volunteer position or moving down from leadership to just a member in one of your groups or clubs.

Make Plans for Disconnection

Set a plan. Actually schedule your rest and relaxation. This gives you something to look forward to, which can help with getting through feelings of burnout, even if you can't rest right away. Scheduling your downtime also ensures that you get the time you need to recharge to stave off burnout in the future.

Don't Forget Your Basic Needs

Feeling like you have the world on your shoulders can make you neglect your basic needs, which just brings about burnout faster. Make sure you're eating. Make sure you're sleeping. Make sure you're getting some sort of small respite from responsibilities, even something as simple as a walk around the block.

How do you know when you're burned out? What do you do when you're feeling burned out?